Top Ten Tuesday: Sunset colours

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Beach/Beachy Reads (Share books you’d take to the beach OR books that take place at the beach.)

I am going to twist the topic a little this week. I have read several books recently where the colours on the cover are pink, orange, yellow and red, the colours of a lovely sunset on the beach so I thought I would use this as my theme for this week. . Coincidentally these are also the colours of the Top Ten Tuesday logo. 

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay - I read this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I still need to read her latest book! (My review)

The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney - This was the original cover when this book first came out, and which I still have now. 

Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee - This is my most recent 5 star read, and the most recent cover with these colours. (My review)

An Italian Wedding Adventure by Leonie Mack - I do enjoy this author's books and was glad I could find a cover that worked for this post. (My review)

Happy Place by Emily Henry - In my mind a lot of Emily Henry's books would suit this theme but it turns out they really don't!

A Sunrise Over Bali by Sandy Barker - Sunrise, sunset! Oh well. The colours worked. I have read a lot of Sandy Barker's books but I still need to read this series.

The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer - Read and loved this earlier this year! Even cooked a recipe from it. (My review)

One Day and Forever by Shari Low - I am about to read my next book by this author so I needed to add her to this list. 

Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering - I have read a few books by this author now and like the way she tells her stories. (My review)

Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri - This is the colour as it gets darker and darker! Another great read from an Australian author! (My review)

Top Ten Tuesday: Twisted Sisters?

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Favorite Character Relationships (These can be platonic or not. Romantic relationships, parent/child, siblings, family bonds, friendships, found families, pet/human, etc.) but I am twisting it to just be about sisters.

The Starfish Sisters by Barbara O'Neal - I haven't read this yet, but I really want to!

The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney - I remember reading this book in one afternoon many years ago.

The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey - What would you do if your sister disappeared in WWII France?

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley - I could have chosen any one of the Seven Sister

Outback Sisters by Rachael Johns - The fourth book in the Bunyip Bay series

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart - There's lots of books about various occupations sisters

Sisters of Mercy by Caroline Overington - I have read this, although I am not sure I remember much about it

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen - I love this cover!

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett - Never miss an opportunity to post a book about Pratchett

My Sisters Keeper by Jodie Picoult - Can't tell you how much I disliked the ending of this book.

Can you think of any other sisters books?

Christmas Quotes: Lola's Christmas

I am just about to head interstate and might even manage to find myself spending some time in the small town of Clare, which is where Lola's Secret by Monica McInerney is set. Here are the opening paragraphs of that book:

Even after more than sixty years of living in Australia, eighty-four-year-old Lola Quinlan couldn't get used to a hot Christmas. Back home in Ireland, December has mean short days, darkness by four p.m., open fires and frosty walks. Snow if they were lucky. Her mother had loved following Christmas traditions, many of them passed down by her own mother. The tree decorated a week before Christmas Day and not a day earlier. Carols in the chilly church before Midnight Mass. Lola's favourite tradition of all had been the placing of a lit candle in each window of the house on Christmas Eve. It was a symbolic welcome to Mary and Joseph, but also a message to any passing stranger that they would be made welcome too. As a child, she'd begged to be the one to light the candles, carefully tying back the curtains to avoid the chance of fire. Afterwards, she'd stood outside with her parents, their breath three frosty clouds, gazing up at their two-storey house transformed into something almost magical.

She was a long way from Ireland and dark frosty Decembers now. Sixteen thousand kilometres and about thirty-five degrees Celsius to be exact. The temperature in the Clare Vally of South Australia was already heading towards forty degrees and it wasn't even ten a.m. yet. The hills that were visible through the window were burnt golden by the sun, not a blade of green grass to be seen. There was no sound of carols or tinkling sleigh bells. The loudest noise was coming from the airconditioner behind her. If she did take a notion to start lighting candles and placing them in all the windows, there was every chance the fire brigade would come roaring up the hill, sirens blaring and water hoses at the ready. At last count, the Valley View Motel that Lola called home had more than sixty windows. Imagine that, Lola mused. Sixty candles ablaze at once. It would be quite a sight. Almost worth the trouble it would cause ...

I am hoping that it won't be 40 degrees celsius this year on Christmas!

Lola's Secret by Monica McInerney

A long time ago, back in my pre-blogging days (yes, that long ago) I picked up a book called The Alphabet Sisters. One cold, rainy Sunday afternoon I thought I would just read for a while. I was curled up on the couch, near the heater with a cosy blanket and I just kept on turning the pages, one after another. I laughed and I cried (oh boy, did I cry). It was my first Monica McInerney book, but since then I have read a few more, and bought even more that I haven't yet read.

When I heard that Lola, the indomitable grandmother from The Alphabet Sisters was going to be the main character in this book I knew that I would have to read it. I bought it when I was spending the day up at Bendigo but since then it has sat on my shelf unread, until I saw that there was a blog tour- finally the encouragement I needed to actually get the book off the shelf and read it!

Lola Quinlan is looking forward to her family going away and leaving her to own devices this Christmas. She is not, however, going to be by herself. Instead she has placed an ad looking for guests to come to stay at the family motel for Christmas and Lola will use any means at her disposal to have people around her at this time of the year. You have to wonder why she doesn't want her family around, and also who are these people who will come to a small town in country Australia instead of being with their families.

Among the prospective guests there is a young man who has lost his job, his girlfriend and his hope, who has a terrible plan for this Christmas. There is a also a couple who have been dealing with the aftermath of a terrible accident and the wife is at the end of her tether. Also at the end of their tether, three sisters who are growing up in something akin to a battlefield rather than a loving family environment.

Before Lola can even begin to worry about her guests though, she has plenty to keep herself busy. Despite being drawn closer together when their sister Anna was ill, Lola's granddaughters Bett and Carrie can't seem to get along. Both are struggling with getting the balance between the demands of their young children, keeping house, keeping their husbands happy and so much more. Anna's daughter is having trouble dealing with the fact that her father is looking to move on with his life. And then, there is the charity shop! Lola has been volunteering at the charity shop in town for years, but she doesn't feel as happy there since a new 'volunteer' has started who has very definite ideas which clash with Lola's own thoughts.

Along the way, there are revelations about the past and the future, and the rekindling of a friendship that Lola had thought long lost.

US Cover

In some ways I think this book suffers a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a book abut a family matriarch doing what she does best - pulling her family together despite their losses? Or is it a book about strangers coming together at Christmas? In the end it is very clearly one of those, but the story gets a bit distracted by the other things that are thrown in the mix.

One thing that did think was really well represented was the heat of an Australian Christmas. I know it is something that fascinates people from the Northern hemisphere, but a hot Chrismtas is a normal Christmas for us. The heat, the dust, the effort to fit all the traitional (winterish) aspects of the celebration into a very different environment and more. There is a chance that I might find myself near  Clare (the small town where this book is set) and if I find myself at a loose end for a few hours, I might even go and visit Clare, especially seeing one of my favourite wineries is near the town.

Rating 3.5/5

Tour Details

Tour schedule
Monica's website
Monica on Facebook


Synopsis

Magic can happen in every family.

At the Valley View Motel in South Australia's picturesque Clare Valley, eighty-four-year-old Lola Quinlan is up to her usual mischief. She's sent her family away for Christmas and invited a number of mystery guests to come and stay. But who are all these people, and why aren't they spending the festive season with their own loved ones?

As the big day draws closer and Lola's personal family dramas threaten to unravel her plans, she discovers that at a special time of year, magic can happen in every family – especially your own.

From the bestselling author of At Home with the Templetons comes a funny, sad and moving novel about memories and moments and the very meaning of life.

As an added bonus today, I thought I should mention that I have met Monica McInerney a couple of times now. The first was a couple of years ago when she was doing a publicity tour for At Home with the Templetons (you can read about that meeting here) but the last time was last week. Once again the author is on the publicity trail, this time for her new book The House of Memories which has just been released here in Australia.

In a very clever contest idea, the publisher asked the public to help build a house of memories and by doing so you got a chance to win the entire backlist by the author plus $1000 spending money! the way that the entrants hepled to build the house of memories was by each writing a memory on a small piece of paper to an outline of a picture. By the end of the day, all the pieces of paper formed a picture of a house which was based on the cover of the book! So clever.

Monica McInerney was also there with some of her family but I had to rush back to work so couldn't stay and chat! I did manage to get a few pictures of the house, to share my memory with her and to get my book signed too. If I could get the photos off of my phone I would share them with you, but I am being thwarted by technology at the moment! I will add them into the post later.

Early in the day

At the end of the day

I read this book for the following  challenges.

Monica McInerney author event

Last night I was lucky enough to go and listen to Australian-Irish author Monica McInerney speak. I didn't realise it last night, but it has actually been more than four years since I last read a book by her, but she will be an author who I will always have fond memories of reading. Monica writes funny, emotionally connecting novels that generally centre around a family, and the dynamics between those family members.

The first book I read from her was The Alphabet Sisters. I picked it up on one winter afternoon and ended up reading straight through from beginning to end. I laughed, I cried, and I was definitely emotionally moved!

Last night Monica's speech was entertaining, gracious, and very enjoyable.

A couple of things that she talked about were the superstitions that she developed whilst writing her latest book, which is called At Home with the Templetons. Some examples were having to do certain actions before emailing her manuscript to herself each day, or having to do certain things on her daily walks. She started off saying that she never had that experience before where superstitions became so imperative to her process, but as she talked, she was realising that she actually had. They were just different superstitions for each book.


It was funny because I took two of my older books by her to get signed, and then yesterday I also bought the new book. When I went up to get them signed, she put them in chronological order, and then looked at me in surprise as she realised that was yet another habit that she had - when she signs multiple books it has to be in the order that they were published in!

Monica also talked a bit about the process of getting published in the US, and in particular about the general practice of changing particular words in books for the US market. The example she gave was in relation to her previous book, Those Faraday Girls. In the first few pages in the original novel, the characters walk down the pavement in Hobart and they are talking on their mobile phones, and then there is something about changing the nappy on the baby in the story. When Monica received the proofs back from the American publisher they had changed it so that the characters were walking down the sidewalk talking on their cells, and the baby's diaper was changed! She fought successfully to get those changes reversed because if the novel is a picture of life in Australia, then that is not language that we used. I know that this can be a bit of a bug bear for readers, so it was very interesting to hear an author talk about this issue.

She also shared some of the overseas covers that she has had over the years, as well as talking about translations. Most of the covers were very nice, but there were a couple of shockers!

Her current book, At Home with the Templetons, has just been released in Ireland (where she currently lives) and Australia, and will be reduced in the US and UK next year.

Do you find yourself making connections between books when you are reading? Monica McInerney grew up in a small town in South Australia called Clare which was about an hour or so away from where I grew up.  The Alphabet Sisters was set in Clare.

The book I am reading at the moment is Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine, and the last time I picked up the book, the main character visiting a place in the UK called Clare, and one of the major characters is a member of the de Clare family which was a powerful family in Medieval England.

Oh, and my friend and I were chatting away very amiably in the signing lane with a lady whose name was Clare, although she spelt it differently! After a bit of book pimping for the author I always pimp (Susanna Kearsley, Elizabeth Chadwick, plus Ariana Franklin) and some mutual discussion about Diana Gabaldon, we went our separate ways.

It's a tenuous connection, but I couldn't stop thinking about it all day yesterday! Another connection, my favourite wine maker comes from the Clare Valley. Wasn't enough to get me to open a bottle last night, but I might tonight seeing as it is Friday!

You all know how much I hate having my photo taken (hair is very flat, makeup needed to be touched up, stooping is really not such a good idea), but I had to take at least one photo to put up here. Anyway, I am really not the important person in the picture!

Family Baggage by Monica McInerney

Harriet Turner knows all about journeys. After all, she’s arranged hundreds of them for the travel agency her family runs in the Australian coastal town of Merryn Bay. But when her work colleague and foster sister Lara disappears on the eve of a big overseas trip, Harriet finds herself in uncharted territory.

Left alone in England with a coachload of eccentric tourists on a themed tour of locations from the Willoughby TV detective series, Harriet has her hands full. But as the bus trundles through the picturesque Cornwall countryside, the tour becomes another kind of journey for her. She finds herself facing big questions about her family and her childhood; about her feelings for the guest of honour on the tour, star of Willoughby, Patrick Shawcross – and the biggest puzzle of all: what has happened to Lara?

Monica McInerney is probably Australia's version of Maeve Binchy. The fact that she is an Irish-Australian author makes that a very easy comparison to make, however, she writes stories that are full of charm and wit, without being too sickly sentimental, although occasionally it is a very fine line! This book was nominated as an A Great Read by one of the women's magazines here, and it was easy to see why. Whilst the book was over 500 pages long, it didn't actually feel that long once you got past the first 100 or so pages.

For those first 100 pages or so though, I actually didn't think that I was going to like this book. There were so many loose threads that were going to need to be tied together. This tour of England that Harriet had been called in to do at the last minute is her first tour since the last disastrous tour where Harriet had had a nervous breakdown, bought on by the deaths of both of her parents, separately, not too long before. Her foster sister Lara was supposed to meet her at the airport but hadn't shown up, the guest of honour thought he was doing an interview not a four day tour with a group of elderly but very enthusiastic fans. Meanwhile back in Australia, her brother James was in hospital, his wife Melissa was busy upsetting everyone, her 16 year old niece Molly was contemplating having sex with her much older swimming coach, and friend of the family Gloria had kept a huge secret for 24 years and had had just about enough.

There were points where I wondered how there would be any kind of congruency within the various threads to tie them tegether neatly, but the author managed it quite nicely in the end. I will say that there were not really many surprises - most of the events in the book were signposted from pages away, but overall it was a satisfying and emotionally involving read.

I read The Alphabet Sisters by the same author last year and probably enjoyed that more, but this was certainly an entertaining enough read. Family Baggage will be released in the US in July of this year.

Rating 4/5